Communication Tools for Your Team

As your business grows, you will most likely increase the number of sites from which your various employees conduct their work. Whether it’s an additional location or a telecommuter, or even a field nomad, the right communication tools make all the difference to your success.

Why? What is in it for the company?

Reduce the barriers by acknowledging the various types of communicators that make up your complete team. Some are great face to face, while others prefer an instant chat approach.

Team Building around the subjects at hand. Some team members deeply resent attending meetings, while others loathe the chore of answering yet another email string when a half hour face to face would do the trick. Provide a multi-stream path of communication for your team so they can be cohesive problem solvers.

Get excited because everyone is participating in building a better business. You can’t get ownership and accountability from a team by ignoring their input. Reach out and ask and make sure they can answer with an appropriate method. Provide opportunities for your crew to make suggestions and then implement some of those suggestions.

Areas for Improvement

Feedback – surveys, suggestion requests, all-hands-in meetings, small group meetings with managers or, one on ones – get the employees feedback on everything worth doing in your office

Encourage – reinforce the idea that employees could ask each other for the information they need and finish that task themselves; demonstrate how this is done by leading by example

Be Open – tell everyone about the goals of the company, the roles and activities that will help you get there and avoid the verbal orders. Discourage top down communication and encourage collaboration to create an achievement-oriented environment.

Create Channels – email, instant messenger, phone, meetings, ticket system, print, online, as well as orientation and training sessions, one of these is the preferred method of learning and interacting for each employee

Tools to Have on Hand

Server with secure web access and online file sharing

Secure Instant Messenger

VoIP telephones with call forwarding feature

Email and calendar functions

Templates for News Letters, Press Releases, and Meeting Invites

Centralized Employee Telephone and Extension Sheet

Blog or Online Bulletin board

Physical Bulletin board and White Boards

Good Communicating with you all!!

Kathleen Royall

Tuesday Tech Tip, May 27, 2014

Tuesday, 27 May 2014 14:55

“When you know better you do better.”

– Maya Angelou

Looking to build an educational structure into your business but don’t have the budget? I have just the tech tip for you.

When looking to expand your company’s expertise, you need to think about what you want EVERYBODY to know as part of your culture and then review the educational requirements that will accelerate each department and role. Build metrics around your selections. What do you think these education incentives could help your employees do? What are the current measurements of those activities? How would education improve those metrics?

For example, let’s take an engineering firm. They use AutoCAD and develop designs. Taking courses in AutoCAD should accelerate the average turnaround of the design. How long does it take to design a work on average? How much time would you need to drop in order for this to be a worthwhile endeavor?

Don’t just look at the tangible items that can be measured. What causes the company stress; areas of service which might be abstract? Do your employees handle customer interaction well? Do people walk away from your services and feel that they have had a favorable experience?

Once you have determined your objectives there are several government sites and organizations that will help you design courses that your employees can use to become stronger at their job.